Purple Hearts
by Rivendell101
Summary: Ino blinked. The stupid boy- no man she had stupidly fallen in love with was gone. And all she had left was a Purple Heart. Hiatus


**Purple Hearts**

**Chapter One: Straight Flush**

Ino blinked. The damn thing was still laying across her table, the _God damn_ thing was still just laying there; seemingly oblivious to the immense pain it was causing her. Blink. Not moving. Blink. Not changing. Blink. No one was going to come in and tell her this was all some huge mistake. Blink. No one was going to laugh this off later. Blink. She wished she could stop breathing, because her entire world had gone to _shit_ in the span of less than ten minutes.

And he- he wasn't coming back. The stupid boy- no _man_ she had stupidly fallen in love with was gone.

And all she had left was a Purple Heart.

Ino let out a bitter laugh; she had gained two Purple Hearts today. Not just the one.

Her brother, God, _Naruto_ had gotten a Purple Heart as well, and this had to be some sort of _nightmare_, because this couldn't actually be _real_.

How could any of this be real?

If someone- anyone- had told her she would wake up that morning to find two military officers in uniform standing on her doorstep their faces solemn, standing awkwardly, not wanting to, but knowing they _had _to, waiting to hand her two- _two_- Purple Hearts, specifically the Hearts of her stepbrother and her best friend, she would have laughed, maybe screamed at them to not say something like that.

Ino had been staring at the same spot for the last three hours, staring at the place where the Hearts _shouldn't_ have been and where the two people she cared about most _should_ have been. But the Hearts were there, and her boys weren't coming back.

And the realization hit her. It hit her so damn hard.

And she cried.

**~Straight Flush~**

Ino had finally stopped crying after what seemed like forever. She could now only look at the Hearts with unfocused eyes, vacantly staring at the table top in front of her. She didn't know how long she had sat there, and honestly? She didn't even care.

She was paying so little attention that she didn't hear the front door unlock and then open.

"Ino? What are you still doing awake? It's almost two." Sakura.

Ino didn't make a sound. She had the sinking feeling that if she opened her mouth she would start screaming in her grief, and she couldn't have that. She needed to stay strong, because if she broke now she wouldn't be able to handle it anymore. Being strong was the only choice she had left now, and like hell she was going to lose it.

Ino felt Sakura walk up behind her. "What are you doing with your dad's Purple Heart? And Deidara's?"

Ino knew she had to answer Sakura, she knew she had to tell her now or she never would. "They aren't… They aren't my dad and Deidara's."

Yes, Ino had four of a kind.

Her father's Heart, given to her three years ago when she was sixteen. He was a sniper, specializing in longer range attacks and interrogation. She remembered that he had been sent out to take down a specific man. Her father had taken down his target, but at the cost of his own life. He didn't manage to get out of the building he was in before it was blown to pieces.

He had only been forty-two.

Deidara's Heart, her _cousin's _Heart, he had died last year after some sort of mission. She couldn't even remember what it was and that _killed_ her inside. She was only given the heart because his parents had refused to take it. They hated him and he had joined the military to get _away_ from them.

He was twenty-one, brilliant, and an amazing person to top it all off. He was only three years older than she was. Her being eighteen when he had been killed in action.

Sakura's face went slack, her green eyes holding a look of horror deep within them, and Ino was sure her own held the same dead emptiness. "Then who-?" She cut herself off. "No." Sakura looked at her with wide eyes, almost begging Ino to tell her it wasn't true. "Please tell me its not-."

An insane laugh bubbled out of Ino's mouth before Sakura could finish. With a shaky hand Ino pointed to the first Heart. "Naruto-." She cut off as a sob ripped itself out of her chest.

God, her brother! Well not really her brother, Naruto had been adopted, but no one in the Yamanaka family treated him as an outsider, he was her brother in spirit if not blood and she would beat anyone to Hell and then back if they said any different.

He was nineteen, just like her, his bright blue eyes shining with a mirth that couldn't be contained. Everything about him was lighthearted. From his eyes to his messy blond hair, his energetic attitude that never seemed to falter even at the hardest times, and his goofy smile that would light up the room whenever he walked in, and that only seemed to grow brighter whenever he was around someone he loved.

He had joined the military because of his strong need to protect his friends and family from everything that was thrown at them, no matter what it would cost him in the end. In this case his life.

Ino's finger shifted to the second Heart on the table and another sob wrecked her body, "Shikamaru."

Her best friend, now nothing more than another dead body that she had loved, returned to the dust.

He was the opposite of Naruto: tall, dark hair pulled back in a short ponytail, impassive, almost cold to the people around him, but she knew that he had a softer side. She had seen it more than once, his scowl would slide away and his lips would twitch into a barely-there smile. He was ridiculously courageous and terribly loyal, willing to go to the ends of the earth for the people he loved.

She could remember him saying that he was 'doing this for her and everyone else that he needed to protect.' Not that he wanted to protect. Not that he felt the need protect. No. The people that he would rather _die_ trying to defend than see hurt.

Oh, but she was hurt. She now carried the Purple Hearts of her father, her cousin, her brother, and her best friend.

One more and she would have a straight flush.


End file.
